Blog Archives

Wow, we are almost at the mid point of October and Halloween is just around the corner! As we enter the holiday season, remember how important it is to take care of your health and your brain! Speaking of the brain it’s time to exercise your brain, form new brain pathways, build your cognitive reserve, challenge yourself, engage in new learning! Become a lifelong learner, and take advantage of your brain and neuroplasticity skills through new learning. We are never too old for new learning or too young to begin building our cognitive reserves! Let’s try some anagrams today. Create as many new words as you can from the following words.

Remember to exercise your body as well! Physical exercise helps pump blood throughout your body-including your brain. Studies have shown that by walking just 35 minutes a day at least 3 days/week it’s possible to increase the size of your hippocampus, which may correlate to improved memory skills! So, get up, leash that dog and take a walk!

Spring Break is winding down and we are all starting to prepare for the upcoming week. I had a relaxing vacation at the beach, and I’m ready to be beach bound again! But for now, it’s back to life and reality.

Time to get back into the business of the brain and forming new pathways while building a cognitive reserve through neuroplasticity or brain plasticity. Let’s build a buff brain! Challenge yourself with something new or just do something differently or change the order of things in your daily, morning or evening rituals. Yes, it can actually be that simple-anything that causes or forces us to think differently is beneficial! It doesn’t matter if you’re a senior, a baby boomer, a gen X or Y, approaching 50, 40, or even 30. We all need to embrace the concept of lifelong learning. It’s as simple as ABC-Always Brain Challenging-that’s what we believe at BrainMasters!

Equally important to exercising the brain is the caring for the brain. This includes physical exercise and eating brain foods. By engaging in physical exercise and consuming healthy foods we become active participants in the anti-aging, longevity, and anti-Alzheimer’s Disease campaign. I know everyone is busy-we all are. Surely, we all can allocate 30 minutes each day to exercise whether it’s a walk, yoga, biking, or playing Wii Fit-just get moving! If you have a dog, then walk it; after all pets need exercise too!

Let’s not forget about that healthy diet! Fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and whole grains, lean meats and fish loaded with omega 3’s! Limit or eliminate those white things such as white sugar and white flour. Newly released findings by Dr. Suzanne DeLaMonte Neuropathologist, Rhode Island Hospital strongly suggest that Alzheimer’s Disease is diabetes of the brain! She suggests to reduce the risk for developing this disease it’s essential to decrease your exposure to certain toxins. These toxins include: sodium nitrite, processed foods, white sugars. Try and eat organically grown foods! She stressed the importance of healthy eating, physical exercise, and brain stimulation/exercise to help ward off Alzheimer’s Disease or diabetes of the brain! Add some fresh berries, cinnamon and walnuts to greek yogurt-now that’s a delicious snack or meal! Drink plenty of water and try some green tea. Both have proven health benefits!

Now that you are armed with this powerful new knowledge, it’s time to exercise that brain and form new pathways! Here are some spring themed anagrams. Form as many new words as possible, and let us know how you do!

Do you get enough Vitamin D? Do you even know how much you get daily or how much is recommended? Have you had your Vitamin D level checked? My endocrinologist checked mine about almost 2 years ago, and I’ve been taking Vitamin D supplements ever since. Of course my physician monitors my Vitamin D levels through routine blood tests.

Well, today the Institute of Medicine is expected to release its recommendation to increase daily Vitamin D intake from 200 international units to 600 international units. The Institute is also expected to recommend raising the upper limit of Vitamin D intake for adults from 2000 IUs to 4000 IUs. Why is Vitamin D important? I think Vitamin D has gained more attention recently as we are not the sun lovers we once were. More of us consistently use sunscreen and kids don’t seem to play outside all day long like we did as kids. As we all know, Vitamin D is crucial to bone health but did you know that low levels may also contribute to many chronic diseases like-Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, cognitive decline, diabetes, cancer, auto- immune diseases, depression, stroke, infections, and even heart disease. That is why Vitamin D is crucial to your health!

So now that you’ve read all this, what should you do? First, continue to eat a well balanced diet as that promotes anti-aging and healthy aging. Continue to exercise your brain and your body. It’s the combination of brain exercise, physical exercise, and healthy eating that increase your odds for longevity and a healthy life. What have you got to lose except maybe your brain health, chronic diseases and illness, or your life? Perhaps it’s time for a checkup with your physician that includes lab work to check your Vitamin D level to at least establish your baseline.